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An Honorable Profession
John L'Heureux is one of our most authoritative and compelling novelists, and An Honorable Profession, a New York Times Notable Book, is about an ordinary New England school where a young English teacher's life is about to undergo the most serious of tests. Miles Bannon works hard and strives to be fair; he enjoys his popularity with students -- a bit too much, sometimes -- but overall he is a good man. When he witnesses a group of students picking on one boy in the shower after football practice, he is suddenly forced to balance his responsibility for the situation with the unexpectedly intimate glimpse he now has of them. And when the victim begins to cling to him in the face of his own father's rejection, Miles finds it perhaps too welcome a feeling. Then comes an accusation of impropriety that will destroy his career -- and transform his life, and who he thought he was, forever.
- GenresFiction
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
32 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
John L'Heureux
50 books36 followersJohn L'Heureux served on both sides of the writing desk: as staff editor and contributing editor for The Atlantic and as the author of sixteen books of poetry and fiction. His stories appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, and have frequently been anthologized in Best American Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. His experiences as editor and writer informed and direct his teaching of writing. Starting in 1973, he taught fiction writing, the short story, and dramatic literature at Stanford. In 1981, he received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and again in 1998. His recent publications include a collection of stories, Comedians, and the novels, The Handmaid of Desire (1996), Having Everything (1999), and The Miracle (2002).
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/m...
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/m...
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 31, 2019
Miles is quite possibly the worst character I’ve ever encountered in a novel. I think we were supposed to feel sorry for him when his public persona was ripped to shreds after he was accused of molestation but I just felt vindicated and satisfied watching him receive a small fraction of what he, in my opinion, deserved. He was an atrocious man and I hated him.
How can I describe Miles Bannon? In the simplest terms, he was an ASSHOLE. He used people and then discarded them. He kept a rape a secret and then used the boy who had been assaulted to boost his ego since he knew the boy was in love with him, which ultimately led to Billy’s suicide. He wanted his mother dead because she was a burden. He dumped a fragile woman after sucking her dry physically and emotionally for years, which led her to attempt suicide. He was homophobic and often referred to gay men as “fairies” or “queers” and was unforgivably cruel to a gay student who simply wanted to get through the day without being bullied by literally everyone around him, including his teacher. Miles was a horrible man with a bad case of arrested development and thought himself the victim when in actuality he was the villain.
In the end he got to live happily ever after; he had his cake and got to eat it too. This novel was bullshit. A whiny, self centered white man got everything he wanted after being a royal dick his whole life. Fuck that!
How can I describe Miles Bannon? In the simplest terms, he was an ASSHOLE. He used people and then discarded them. He kept a rape a secret and then used the boy who had been assaulted to boost his ego since he knew the boy was in love with him, which ultimately led to Billy’s suicide. He wanted his mother dead because she was a burden. He dumped a fragile woman after sucking her dry physically and emotionally for years, which led her to attempt suicide. He was homophobic and often referred to gay men as “fairies” or “queers” and was unforgivably cruel to a gay student who simply wanted to get through the day without being bullied by literally everyone around him, including his teacher. Miles was a horrible man with a bad case of arrested development and thought himself the victim when in actuality he was the villain.
In the end he got to live happily ever after; he had his cake and got to eat it too. This novel was bullshit. A whiny, self centered white man got everything he wanted after being a royal dick his whole life. Fuck that!
August 27, 2015
Kind of a hot mess. There's too much going on here and Miles just annoyed me. He was a man child who just kept making one mistake after another because he was unable or unwilling to face the problems in his life.
April 18, 2019
I loved the writing and the complicated life of Miles Bannon, a dedicated high school teaching trying to navigate his responsibilities to his dying mother, his complicated girlfriend who is always there for him and adores him, and a school principal who insists he lie about something very painful....the brutal rape of a sensitive student. He must navigate the student's growing crush on him - and with the home the boy comes from, a crush on the gentle Miles is not a surprise. It is too rich a book to give it less than five stars....and yet it is a risky thing for the gifted author to make Miles desert his girlfriend for a self-centered department head. For many chapters, he behaves like a total bastard. It makes him perhaps truer to life that he would break down and do something so stupid with all that is heaped upon him, but it is hard for me to forgive him and gain my entire sympathy again. I wish the author had not included that shallow affair but then perhaps Miles would have been too good. I don't know. How far to the dark side can we push a protagonist without losing our love? A good question.
March 26, 2019
I suppose "gutsy" topics and scenes are all the rage, but the predicament built was unnecessary and, ultimately, created a lousy read. I will turn off a movie when the plot includes being responsible for a corpse then not calling the authorities; I just hate it when people are this stupid.
December 24, 2019
Quite possibly the worst book I've ever read. I finally gave up after 100 pages. Terrible book. It had such potential to be a gripping story. I tried but I don't wanna try any more. Don't waste your time on this one.
March 18, 2021
Miles Bannon is a successful English teacher, know affectionately as Milo by his students he is the most popular teacher in the school. But when a boys' initiation prank in the sports changing rooms goes wrong, it sets in motion a series of events that look to ruin his reputation and his beloved career.
Miles does what he can to help the victim of the prank, but the boy, distanced by his father and initially withdrawn, develops a crush for Miles, leading to confusion for Miles, and eventually accusations of improper behaviour on his part.
An Honorable Profession chronicles the events from the prank to the end of the school year and Miles' final realisations about himself. We follow him as he deals not only with the troubled boy and the rumours and accusations, but also his dying mother, his clinging and troubled girlfriend and the voracious Diane, who heads his English Department.
It is a story of eventual personal triumph over adversity, and makes for a satisfying read. I found myself switching from admiring Miles to almost despairing for him when on the occasion he makes some less than wise decisions. But finally one has to admire him for coming through it all one way or another.
Miles does what he can to help the victim of the prank, but the boy, distanced by his father and initially withdrawn, develops a crush for Miles, leading to confusion for Miles, and eventually accusations of improper behaviour on his part.
An Honorable Profession chronicles the events from the prank to the end of the school year and Miles' final realisations about himself. We follow him as he deals not only with the troubled boy and the rumours and accusations, but also his dying mother, his clinging and troubled girlfriend and the voracious Diane, who heads his English Department.
It is a story of eventual personal triumph over adversity, and makes for a satisfying read. I found myself switching from admiring Miles to almost despairing for him when on the occasion he makes some less than wise decisions. But finally one has to admire him for coming through it all one way or another.
March 9, 2025
I found this book compelling. As a retired public high school teacher I found the writing about high school kids, classes, study halls, behaviors, and scenarios to be spot-on. Oh the faculty lounge…….and the principal was authentic to my experience. Miles did not report the crime because he was told not to. Everything was all about the school’s reputation. It doesn’t get more real than that. Dare we forget Penn State on the collegiate level?
My favorite quotes:
“Any moment can be ripe for revelation.”
“There was no thrill like teaching. When it all clicked, and you asked the right questions, and you had them hooked and leaning forward, and you led them carefully, slowly, patiently up to that moment where they discovered something new and disturbing about themselves, or other people, or the world they were gonna inhabit for sixty or seventy years…..God, there was nothing like it. It was selfless. It was pure giving.”
My favorite quotes:
“Any moment can be ripe for revelation.”
“There was no thrill like teaching. When it all clicked, and you asked the right questions, and you had them hooked and leaning forward, and you led them carefully, slowly, patiently up to that moment where they discovered something new and disturbing about themselves, or other people, or the world they were gonna inhabit for sixty or seventy years…..God, there was nothing like it. It was selfless. It was pure giving.”
November 14, 2019
A high school English teacher dissected...
Situations like this one do occur in educational settings. Lives unravel, both the guilty and the innocent are transformed, and yet the system proceeds as usual. This is not always a comfortable or happy read, but the writing is first rate and the characters are unforgettable.
Situations like this one do occur in educational settings. Lives unravel, both the guilty and the innocent are transformed, and yet the system proceeds as usual. This is not always a comfortable or happy read, but the writing is first rate and the characters are unforgettable.
April 20, 2019
It was okay. The main character got on my nerves a little bit. As a former teacher, I couldn’t relate to some of his actions or thoughts. The principal was even worse.
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June 19, 2010I really regret impulsively buying this book on my trip to Vermont. It's about as boring and simple as most of Vermont. The writing is a disaster. I frequently lose interest, but now I'm one-fourth of the way through and will probably finish it to find out how everything goes down. A big dud to begin my summer; hope it isn't a sign.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews